Historically data processing equipment such as document reader sorters have included a transport guideway leading from a document hopper past a processing station to one or more selectable pockets, and transport apparatus for moving documents at a variety of speeds along the guideway to be sorted and stacked in the pockets. Typically the transport apparatus of such document reader sorters has provided picking and feeding means in the area of the hopper, for thrusting one document at a time into the entranceway of the guideway path, and speed control means for maintaining or accelerating the speed of travel of the documents along the guideway to and away from the processing station. It has been a characteristic of document reader sorters of this type to require periodic and problem-related human intervention, i.e. intervention on the part of the operator for the purpose of intercepting a document or clearing a document jam, or intervention on the part of a repairman for the purpose of correcting a variety of paper-related malfunctions.
In recognition of the need for problem-related intervention on the part of the operator, document reader sorters have long since provided hinged access lids in the areas where such intervention is likely to be required. These access lids have varied widely in size and weight, and have required varying degrees of effort on the part of the operator to effect their opening and closing. Additionally, various means have been employed for supporting the hinged lids in their open positions, including complicated and costly latching devices that tend to favor safety over convenience and economy, and less complicated supporting structures that appear to favor convenience and economy at the risk of operator safety.
Other types of data processing equipment such as check encoding and sorting systems have required operator intervention of a more routine and regular nature. Systems of this type typically include a hopper compartment into which batches of checks are edge stacked for individual withdrawal and processing by the operator, a keyboard for entering the information to be encoded on the checks (as for example in MICR characters), an insert slot adjacent the hopper into which the individual checks are dropped by the operator following the keyboard entry, and transport apparatus for moving the checks along a guideway from the insert slot through a processing station to a selected one of a plurality of pockets, the processing station, located adjacent the keyboard, including an encoding printer and an endorser. In systems of this kind operator access to the processing station is required, not only for the purpose of clearing an occasional jam in the transport guideway, but also, with more predictable frequency, for the purpose of changing the encoding ribbon and advancing the endorser date. For these purposes an access lid is generally provided in the area of the processing station and adjacent the keyboard, the lid being hinged in such manner as to permit ready access by the operator without moving from her normal working location and position.
A need has accordingly been felt for a completely safe and yet economical means for controlling the opening and closing of access lids in document processing equipment of various kinds, which is to say means whereby the access lid may be opened with minimal effort on the part of an attending operator, whereby a fully or partially opened lid will not be susceptible to accidental closing, and whereby the full and automatic closing of the lid is assured when manually closed to a predetermined point short of its fully closed position.